KIRKUS REVIEW

A fresh history of the
revolution “as a concrete historical event—controversial and significant in its
lasting impact on world politics, but also worth understanding on its own
terms, unmediated by our current prejudices.”

McMeekin (History/Bard
Coll.; The Ottoman Endgame: War, Revolution, and the Making of the
Modern Middle East, 1908-1923, 2015, etc.) refreshingly doesn’t muddy the
waters with too many characters, but he is thorough in his treatment, which is
that much more interesting due to the wealth of information released following
the downfall of the Soviet Union. “Fortunately for historians of the
revolution,” he writes, “the years since 1991 have seen an explosion of
research into Russia’s military performance in World War I from 1914 to 1917.”
Of course, Lenin springs to mind as the great leader of the revolution, but
when he finally appeared, he had been out of the country for years. However, he
knew that the country needed an enemy to unite against, and Germany wouldn’t
provide it; troops were bored and ripe for infiltration by the
Bolsheviks. The author also explores the explosive Order No. 1,
effectively telling troops to disarm officers, as well as Lenin’s abilities to
control the armed forces, one of the keys to Bolshevik success. His goal was
not revolution but civil war, and he got it: “Lenin’s imperative was to
transform the ‘imperialist war’ into a civil war.” However, the author points
out how easily things might have gone the other way. Peter Stolypin’s 1906
agriculture reforms pleased nearly everyone, and the army was well taken care
of. Czar Nicholas II does not escape McMeekin’s scrutiny, either. His
ineffectiveness and reliance on Rasputin turned the people away, even though it
was Rasputin who warned him about the war.

McMeekin effectively
shows how easily one man could undermine the foundations of a nation, and he
makes the revolution comprehensible as he exposes the deviousness of its
leader.

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